Teams & Riders The Remco Evenepoel is the next Eddy Merckx thread

[AlpRaid]

Would love to see Remco riding the Giro FTW in 2027.

I'm hoping 2026.

 

[red_flanders]

I'm hoping 2026.

Wouldn't be a bad thing at all. How might you see that breaking out in terms of who is riding what?

 

[Oldman]

But will Remco be the sort of guy happy with that? He know he has expectations of podium or better, if Lipo is better than him there will be some problems for sure

Remco will need to learn a few things that weren't part of his prior support team's focus, or on their radar at all.
First: GTs are, more than ever; a serious team business proposition. You can channel your inner 18 year old fantasies after you find yourself on Tadej's wheel very close to the finish line. Focus on incremental improvement, bike and tactical skills should be foremost on his mind. Confidence will come from that, too.

 

[AlpRaid]

Wouldn't be a bad thing at all. How might you see that breaking out in terms of who is riding what?

oh man, I don't know.

I actually think remco was at least thinking of doing both Giro and TDF this year. the accident changed all that (even as a possibility).

personally, I wouldn't mind him targeting Giro (particularly if the route is somewhat favorable). as long as the crashes have not permanently stymied his abilities, we know he can get in amazing shape for it (as he was in 2023).

then recover and no races between the Giro and TDF. Then, if he feels recovered, head to the TDF to help in the opening TTT and see how far he can go. If he proves not to be able to fight for GC, then I am sure he would support Lipo and maybe go for a stage.

the issue I see is that there does not seem to be much between rog, lipo and remco in climbing and ITT. Sure, one might be slightly better on a certain type of route on a given day, but I am not sure how they parlay that into challenging the alien(s). Lipo and Remco are similar mountain diesels, and rog (probably more consistent in the high mountains) seems to have lost a bit of snap because of age.

 

[Andre]

Wouldn't be a bad thing at all. How might you see that breaking out in terms of who is riding what?

bold prediction for Giro 2026: Remco, Lipo, Hindley, Roglic, Pelizzarri, Van Gils, Meeus, Moscon

 

[FroomeWagon]

Rogla has nothing more to proof, he will win TdS and that's it.

Is it there is nothing more to prove, or nothing more he can prove?

For example, I kind of got the feeling from the Netflix special that he wanted to prove to Visma that they made a mistake by choosing Vingegaard as the team leader.

Likewise, his palmares still lacks a TDF win. Maybe he is too old, but I think if he rides the TDF, stays on his bike, and something bad happens to Pogi and Vinge, he can win it.

Of course it's difficult to tell because he has a hard time finishing a race, but I think he still might be the 3rd best GC rider in the peloton. If he believes the same thing, he should ride the TDF. Of course, Bora-RB might not let him now ... idk.

 

[red_flanders]

bold prediction for Giro 2026: Remco, Lipo, Hindley, Roglic, Pelizzarri, Van Gils, Meeus, Moscon

That is bold!

 

[Berniece]

bold prediction for Giro 2026: Remco, Lipo, Hindley, Roglic, Pelizzarri, Van Gils, Meeus, Moscon

They don’t need to take Meeus though

 

[Links2003]

They don’t need to take Meeus though

Sound interesting. But I think van Gils will have a complete campaign in the spring classics. So Aleotti as a pure helper would be a good fit.

 

[CyclistAbi]

They don’t need to take Meeus though

Why?

 

[Berniece]

Why?

Because the situation is different from this year. For Meeus to join there are 2 things needed.

1. Meeus needs to show he’s in great shape and winning races in June
2. There is doubt about RBH leaders

There won’t be doubt next year. Not because of Remco alone, also because they now know how Lipowitz can perform in a TDF, and on top of that maybe Roglic will have an issue-free build up. So you would need 3 guys in trouble before you are in doubt and you would bring Meeus.

 

[CyclistAbi]

@Berniece

I see.

 

[stonerider]

I did not see Roglic make any performance gains when he left Visma for Red Bull/Bora. There are no guarantees Remco will make any performance gains with his move.

 

[peterfin]

I did not see Roglic make any performance gains when he left Visma for Red Bull/Bora. There are no guarantees Remco will make any performance gains with his move.

Nothing is guaranteed but moving from Visma to RBH is not the same as moving from SQS to RBH.

 

[AlpRaid]

Riding Tour of Britain again next month.

Hmm. No ITT. Three “hilly” stages followed by three flat stages. I guess this will all be simply about getting kms in I guess. He never got back to peak last year on a similar schedule.

 

[Berniece]

Hmm. No ITT. Three “hilly” stages followed by three flat stages. I guess this will all be simply about getting kms in I guess. He never got back to peak last year on a similar schedule.

There’s that stage that finishes on a 3km climb at 10% average. He can try to go as hard as he can on there

 

[Berflamand]

Hmm. No ITT. Three “hilly” stages followed by three flat stages. I guess this will all be simply about getting kms in I guess. He never got back to peak last year on a similar schedule.

It's the other way around. Three flat stages first, followed by three hilly stages.

The fifth stage looks proper hard (albeit very short) with a double Tumble ascent (5km at 8% with a 3km stretch at 10%).

It's already rather close to the Worlds so he should be in much better shape than last year. Honestly he should probably simply win the race if he wants to be competitive at the Worlds. (EDIT scratch that: apparently it was equally close to the Worlds last year but I still expect him to be better this year)

This is what was said about it in the General News thread:

More importantly, the Tour of Britain route has finally been announced. It's basically split into 1-3 for sprinters and 4-6 for GC.

First two stages are basically identical flat stages in different parts of Suffolk. Third stage is still a sprint stage, but the final 20km have a couple of small difficulties that could make it hard for the calibre of teams at the ToB to control.

Fourth stage is a re-run of the Stage Seven in 2019, famous for one of Mathieu Van der Poel's greatest ever victories (an uphill sprint ahead of Trentin and Simon Clarke). Fifth stage is short at 130km and has a double Tumble ascent. This is probably the most well-known climb in Wales, and is genuinely quite hard – just under 3km at 10% before flattening out for about 1.5km at 5-6%. Last visited in 2014, home to Edoardo Zardini's second-greatest ever win. Stage Six is the second half of the Welsh double header, and is an incredibly short (110km) punchy ride through the old mining valleys of South Wales. The climbs they picked in the middle are maybe a bit too shallow to break the race apart, so it might end up just coming down to who is fastest up and down Caerphilly Mountain (1.4km @ 10%).

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/tourofbritain/men/route

 

[AlpRaid]

It's the other way around. Three flat stages first, followed by three hilly stages.

Hmm. Not according to here: https://tour-of-britain.com/route/

 

[Berflamand]

Hmm. Not according to here: https://tour-of-britain.com/route/

I don't know why it says 2025 on that site but those are last year's stages. Check: https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/tour-of-britain/2024/statistics/start

This is the route this year: https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/tourofbritain/men/route

 

[jmdirt]

I did not see Roglic make any performance gains when he left Visma for Red Bull/Bora. There are no guarantees Remco will make any performance gains with his move.

Rent a Bike to RBBH isn't a huge difference, but QSS to RBBH might be.

 

[KoopaCycling]

Apparantlu Red Bull offered to have Remco examined in their medical centre after he crashed into the car door.
If so, Red Bull must have at least confidence in their medical team.

 

[Karl Merckx]

Apparantlu Red Bull offered to have Remco examined in their medical centre after he crashed into the car door.
If so, Red Bull must have at least confidence in their medical team.

source ?

 

[red_flanders]

Apparantlu Red Bull offered to have Remco examined in their medical centre after he crashed into the car door.
If so, Red Bull must have at least confidence in their medical team.

I momentarily read this as "Red bull offered to have Remco examined in the medical center, but he crashed into the door". 😂

Which unfortunately sounds about par for the course...

But actually pretty interesting they would do that. Yet another overture, or maybe things had moved along much further at that point than anyone knew.

 

[peterfin]

Apparantlu Red Bull offered to have Remco examined in their medical centre after he crashed into the car door.
If so, Red Bull must have at least confidence in their medical team.

Good to know. It also means they saw the crash as very serious and potentially career impacting. So we also shouldn't be surprised about his 2025 level either. It's closer to 2021 than 2024. The good thing is that his 2021 September period was good with 3 medals at EC and WC and winning an Italian semi-classic (early Oct) before running out of gas at Lombardy and Chrono des Nations later that month. So he might still have a month of good results in him this year.

 

[Andre]

Apparantlu Red Bull offered to have Remco examined in their medical centre after he crashed into the car door.
If so, Red Bull must have at least confidence in their medical team.

two brains are better than one...most of the time